Living brave is sexy.

This semseter I was honored to teach a class to a group of students about 'How To Pursue Your Dreams'. One of the activities I came up with was a mini-exercise where students practiced writing their dream life in 90 words or less. For kicks, let's say an excerpt of my 90-word dream life were to show up on, perhaps, the back of a chocolate bar wrapper. The first sentence would probably go something like this:

"In Alex’s late 20s, she left a thriving career to chase her passion for all things beautiful."

Sounds sort of glamourous, right? You might want to buy that chocolate bar, but you'd probably want a little more information that might romance you more fully, right? Based on this first sentence, you could conclude that I left my predictable in order to be brave. In recent months, it has become my quest to live out of curiosity rather than fear and to venture into my personal hunt to uncover the jewels that are inside of me. I'm here to tell you a little bit about the process.

Because this is what’s true. “If you don’t live brave, you will live small.” At least that's what the author of Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert, says.